Network devices that interface to a network can be managed by a network-management system (NMS) for managing processing and memory resources of the network. The network devices can be provided with a simple network management protocol (SNMP) software agent that communicates with the NMS, such as using SNMP protocol.
One task performed by the NMS is to manage interfaces of the network device that are coupled to the network, such as to assign a classification to an interface based on an SNMP description of the interface. The SNMP description, which is stored by the network device, includes default or user-generated text. Other than when the SNMP description is manually set by the user, the SNMP description is static during operation of the network device.
The NMS can apply rules to an interface of a network device to categorize the interface based on content of the SNMP description. A selected task can then be performed to data associated with interfaces that belong to a particular category. However, since the SNMP description is manually assigned and static during operation of the network device, the SNMP description includes limited data that can be used to categorize the interface. Additional information associated with the interface of the network device that may be generated automatically or in real time is inaccessible to the NMS for the purpose of categorizing the interface. For example, information associated with the interface that is generated in response to creation of a dynamic interface is not included in the SNMP description and is not accessible to the NMS.
Such conventional methods and systems have generally been considered satisfactory for their intended purpose. However, there is a need in the art for a system and method in which the NMS can use dynamic information created or updated during operation of a network device to categorize an interface of the network device for processing data entering or exiting the interface based on such categorization. The present disclosure provides a solution for these problems.